Guidence Please

Im a photographer for a local news station. I, of course, know the essentials to using a camera. unfortunatly i still feel very ignorant when i comes to the more technical aspects of a camera such as gama, knee, resolution, etc. I'm needing someone to give me that push to spark up my thinking. wheter it be a book referance, website, whatever would get it done. Thanks to anyone who can help me.

I faced the same issue a few years back. I called people I knew who were "experts" and went with them to camera rental houses to familiarize myself with the cameras/menus. I learned a little bit, but didn't really have enough time with the cameras and found that many are "shy" about giving away their knowledge for competitive reasons.

Largely in frustration I bought a camera to really learn how to do it. Fortunately, you must have access to the equipment to play with at the station...

I could never find a book or web site that really explained this stuff, but I did learn a bit by taking a workshop. (Varicamp / HD expo)

That said, when I went to the workshop I was armed with important knowledge that allowed me to get the most out of my time there. And this knowledge I obtained from learning digital still photography and photoshop. And I think this is where you might want to start. The concepts of gamma, knee, color space, etc are all essential parts of photoshop, though often with different lingo and names. Once you learn it you'll be able to transfer your new knowledge to the digital video camera and it will make much more sense.

So I would get yourself a copy of the full version of photoshop, any version from photoshop 5 or newer will be good enough. And also get a good book such as "Real World Photoshop".

When you've mastered color correction and printing from photoshop you'll be well on your way to understanding the digital video camera, and perhaps you'll even create your own still photography portfolio!